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Pilat
This article uses Pilantine naming conventions, which list surnames before given names Pilat (Pilantine: "River," in reference primarily to the River Finger) is an ancient region of the Delklands; its northernmost inhabited point is the city of Polenonne (with its northernmost overall point being the North Mouth), its southernmost point is the small town of Amonia on the South Mouth (which is located in Crahia - specifically, the Bightlands), its westernmost point is the town of Lordvm in Lobott, and its easternmost point is the Blasted Waste of the Badlands. Many Badlanders refer to it as the Soufron Lands, though this is not commonly used by the country's largest ethnicity, the West Pilantinemen, who interact heavily with the Lobott, and refer to the New Coldlands or the Souflands by this name. Pilat contains many large cities, a large portion of the Teeth Mountains, the Slayers' Hold, Fort Sunday, and the Two Triple Borders. In the past, the country was ruled by the fearsome Foerunner Kings, of which there were Seven Houses: the House of Mammon, the House of Asmodeus, the House of Leviathan, the House of Beelzebub, the House of Belphegor, the House of Satan, and the House of Amon. These houses are formally styled as the Seven "Great Royal" Houses, a styling also used by the Great Royal Princes of the First Isles of Estlenn, which were in a sense first finded as Pilantine colonies. Geography: Pilat is dominated by the Teeth Mountains, and mostly sits in their rain shadow. This, combined with the country's location on this Earth relative to the equator has resulted in a mostly incredibly arid environment in the Badlander Desert and Blasted Waste. The country's proximity to a desert, a swamp, and mountains has made it into a vortex of extreme weather. Pilat is sometimes called the "Tornado Pass" for this reason. Along with tornadoes the country is plagued by massive lightning and dust storms, heat waves, and even cold snaps that can blanket the country in blyzzards of snow during the Cold Season. Despite the arid weather, much of Pilat is riddled with rivers, so much so that it is where the country's name comes from. These rivers flow from the mountains, and create fertile river valleys, especially in West Pilat. The Pilantine Bightlands are a transitional area full of cedars, and conifers, but one can still spot occasional bluffs and sand dunes. This also combines with the pervasive "greyness" that is characteristic of Crahia. In the east lies the Blasted Waste, home to many ruins of the old Southern Empire, and really not much else. The land is blighted, and frequently can climb to 50 centigrade, with temperatures as high as 65 having been recorded a handful of times. History: House of Mammon: The House of Mammon ruled Pilat from about AT: - 2,000 until ~ CC: 0,100, when they were overthrown by Asmodeus Œrphut, usually just called Asmodeus Earfoot. Their rule is borderline legendary. The Great Pyramid (which was nearly pitch black when first constructed, but has slowly become red by being covered in sand and dust) was built during the reign of the House of Mammon, and initially served as a massive tomb for the first Foerunner King, Mammon Mneme. It was constructed about 7,000 years before Tale of Zul, and took over 1,000 years, and millions of soulslaves to build. Wyzards, and golems were also used to build it. The pyramid is so gigantic that it has begun collapsing under its own weight. A city with over 100,000 residents, known simply as the City Around the Great Pyramid began to surround its base. It should be noted that the city does have a Pilantine Name, Moash, which is merely a Pilantine acronym meaning the same thing, roughly, as "City Around the Great Pyramid." Child With Many Names: When the Child With Many Names was born for the second time, he searched far and wide for a new strategy to allow him to destroy his most hated enemy the Shine. Eventually he wound up in West Pilat, where he saw the plight of the COLORFUL Men native to that land, who had been enslaved by Mneme, and felt pity for once in his life. He disguised himself as one of them, and led them out from slavery, where they had been forced to begin building the tomb. It may have been convenient for him to do this, however, as it drastically slowed down progress on the pyramid, and after faking his death, he headed north to consolidate his strength. Among the COLORFUL Men he is known as Renngus the GREY, Renngus the WHITE, Renngus the GOLD, Renngus the GREEN, and Renngus of Many Names. "Renngus" is most likely a Lobottimization of the Pilantine name Ræn'moses, meaning "Made in the Image of the King." Mneme purportedly defeated the mysterious Seasnake Peoples at the Battle at the Sandeloch, which the Ancient Pilantines called MLNNALM, (pronounced Malannalm), an acronym for "the Place Where the Decaying Spirits Gather in Their Numbers." Mneme had intelligence that the King of the Seasnakes, the nigh-mythical King Cobra had an army at Deadmansloch, but it turns out that the information was false, and he had led his army directly into a trap. King Cobra is then said to have magickally manifested an enormous mountain above the battlefield, which fell and caused such an enormous explosion, that it was seen in both Cubenn (the homeland of the Seasnake Peoples), and Southwest Pilat. Only a few hundred people at the battle, including both kings, survived the explosion, but Mneme was shortly thereafter able to kill King Cobra with a bow and arrow. The mountain seemed to be an isle covered in jungles, and ruins, but then promptly disappeared, leaving behind an enormous crater: the Sandeloch. The remaining Seasnake soldiers fought with such fervor that it seemed unnatural. Each and every man fought to the death, save for the king's right-hand man, the Black Viper. He revealed that King Cobra had been using extremely powerful magicks, the likes of which humans were capable of only once in 10,000 years. The presence of the mountain was only possible because of their king, but in turn, he drew power from the mountain, and would have been able to end the world given enough time. This was apparently their entire purpose, originally being created as some sort of doomsday cult, and that battle was to be the battle for the world. But Mneme ended it all with an arrow. Black Viper would go on to teach wyzardry all across Pilat. He seemed to have been special in that he was immune to the psychic powers of King Cobra. This may have been because he was a threeeyed-man. Foerunner King Mammom Lobottcal was the 2nd Foerunner King, rumored to be a bastard son of King Cobra by Mneme's wife Isil, said to have been begotten posthumously when Mneme cut Cobra's body into nine pieces, and scattered them throughout the Delklands, hiding Cobra's genitals inside of his wife's "stomach." House of Asmodeus: After Earfoot overthrew the House of Mammon, the House of Asmodeus went on to rule Pilat for almost exactly 1,000 years. Asmodeus Asumos II was their final Foerunner, and was assassinated by his family in a failed, and ultimately incredibly tragic coup, recounted in the Phœdan or Pilantine Chronicle, a famous play in-universe. House of Leviathan: With the fall of the House of Asmodeus came about the Pilantine Dark Ages, which coincided with the greater Long Decline of the Southern Empire, eventually culminating in a fall into anarchy following the eruption of Mount Scorpion. Soon thereafter, both countries were supplanted by the Far West as the "Power-that-Is" in the Delklands. Eventually, after nearly a millennium of ruin, one of Aye the Queen's Eight Governors, lowly Moklalk, her Great General of common birth in Pilat, named his nephew, Mnrahab, as Foerunner King, who chose the name Leviathan for his great royal house. The name "Leviathan" means "Beast of the Æther," a monstrous snake-like monster in the Faith of the Four Gods of Nature as practised in Pilat. This monster is second only to the Four Gods, and this name was chosen as a boast to show that the Foerunner King were of similar standing as this god. House Leviathan is most known for extending Pilantine rule to all the Badlands, and many parts of Crahia. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. House of Beelzebub: Coup of Rot & Flies: The House of Beelzebub overthrew the House of Leviathan in the bloody Coup of Rot & Flies, which ended in the razing of several historic cities, including Skeltertonne, leading to its dilapidation. House of Belphegor: The House of Belphegor consisted of but three kings. They are known to have been a house of Purejaws, who survived the Breaking of the Jaw, and were spared by Aye's successors. They were instead exiled to what would become Koneland, where they festered like a cancer, gaining political clout. Following a terrible period of tribulation in Pilat wherein seven horrible natural disasters occured, which culminated in the disease known as the Creeping Slumber, the House of Belphegor arrived, and overthrew the House of Beelzebub. House of Satan: The House of Satan was made up of descendants of the House of Beelzebub known to have survived their overthrow and the Creeping Slumber. They restored rule in what became known as the Satanic Revolution. House of Amon: Main Article - House of Amon Finded as the Great Royal House of Aten by Foerunner King Aten Angh (born Amon Angh) following the Aten Coup wherein the Great Royal Princess Concubine Satan Xepho-titi-Aya (daughter-wife of the last Satanic Foerunner King, Satan Sekelet) secretly married him, and both worked together to charm the Great Generals into overthrowing her weak father King Sekelet. Angh was handsome, intelligent, and an insane zealot devoted to the (most-likely anomalous) Faith of the Aten, a beyond-divine entity in the form of the sun or sun disc, said to be the source of life, love, lightning and fire. Angh chose Xepho-titi-Aya for her political skills, and beauty. He built the city of Aten in what would later become West Pilat in Lobott, making it his capital. Rainishmen would in later years incorrectly read the city's name as Adon, meaning "lord" in Pilantine, and named it SENAEVRVM, meaning roughly "Lordliness." It eventually became known as Lordvm in Lobott, and is the westernmost point of Pilat. Despite Angh's vast political skills, his rule was unpopular because of his faith. Statues of him were broken following his death, his tomb was looted, and his daughters thrown into the Great Pyramid. His wife ruled briefly following his death, becoming the 2nd Foerunner Monarch in their dynasty, and oversaw the destruction of Aten in apparent sacrifice to her god. She commited suicide in the public square of her hometown, Satanopolis, the previous dilapidated capital of Pilat, which was shortly thereafter renamed Sekeletpolis, and eventually became known as Skeltertonne. Eventually, the Helter-Skelter Incident would occur at that very same square. Xepho-titi-Aya was succeeded by Angh's firstborn son by an unknown concubine, Aten Tophut Xepho-yi-Angh, who ruled for just nine years and was a hornman. He is usually just called King Toefoot. Toefoot eventually changed his name to Amon Tophut Xepho-yi-Angh. Toefoot was assassinated using an unknown assassin's guild from Parthage. His tomb remained undisturbed, save for very petty grave robberies until CC: 5,723, when it was discovered, unearthing a large amount of Pilantine history. His assassin was most likely hired by his successor, Amon Aye, who had been an advisor to Sekelet, as well as Angh's brother, and had even married Xepho-titi-Aya as her second husband. Aye adopted his son-in-law, Great General Herodgebet (of common birth), who ascended the throne and became Amon Herodgebet. Herodgebet ruled twice as long as his predecessors combined, and despite his relative lack of fame, was most likely the single most successful Foerunner King in Pilantine history (save for possibly Mammon Mneme). Apapilantine Decline: Herodgebet's son by Amon Aye's daughter was Amon Apapilat, and so began the so-called Apapilantine Decline. This was a long decline marked by a lack of ingenuity, and a lack of expansion. The only thing that kept the empire going was border wars and skirmishes to prevent themselves from losing territory, something which they were especially bad at doing in the west, where Sarplander incursions completely took the whole of Arkadia from out of their hands. Their hold of West Pilat would not fall apart until the arrival of Billow the Slave and his freedmen the Sefenlander Slaves much later, however. The Pilantinemen were ostensibly allies of the Empire of the Sefenlands, and practiced slavery on large scales. Billow forced them to stop the practice, for it was "sin." This ruined the economy of Pilat, and it fell into a long depression. Pilantine Civil War: Foerunner King Amon Apapilat XVI felt that his predecessors had erred in continuing to practice slavery, and converted to the Faith o' Nine within the lifetime of Billow, who is heralded as the messianic avatar of the god Canetol in many sects of the faith. He hoped to forge stronger alliances with the Coldlands, the nation-state which had formed from Billow's rag-tag army of freedmen revolutionaries. Instead he invited only an attempted coup by Marcvs Mallvm, a slave master, and zealot follower of the Faith of Four. The House of Mallvm was by then the secondary house of Pilat, made up of the descendants of the long-gone Rainish Magickal Glory. His fellow conspirators included future leader of the Flotch Slave Army Rakard Bystone (owner of the Slave Generals Kaano and Iaako) as well as Lieu Ymu, a follower of the Faith of Calthoss the Shadow & the Shine, son of Lord Vandre Ymu in Telf, technically aligned with the 2nd Rainish Magickal Glory. In essence, both the 1st Great War and 1st Cold War had come to Pilat early. Unfortunately, the war spiralled out of control, and both side's leaders were killed. Both sides employed a scorched earth policy, and the war continued on for over a decade after the actual Great War's end. Eventually, a solution was reached wherein an extremely limited form of slavery was employed. Slaves would not be chattel, and could enter into nine-year-long contracts, wherein their families would be compensated with a few privileges following the end of the period or the slave's death. Apapilat's successor was Tolem Mallvm, son of Marcvs, who was actually a traitor to his father, and staunchly anti-slavery. He was adopted by Apapilat's brother Amon Klemenos. Tolem was succeeded by his granddaughter Amon Apapilat XVII, the last Foerunner of Pilat. Invasion of the Sefenlands: Later in Tolem's reign, Emperor Sadei Hairas of the Sefenlands bloodily put down the Topok Rebellion, and entered his country into a brief period of isolation. This greatly hurt the Pilantine economy, which was only barely getting by with its limited form of slavery. More than that, the other nations of the Delklands treated it as a pariah for this slavery. Tolem taught Apapilat how to rule as best he could, hiring advisors and teachers from around the world. Most notably he hired an Anasi-Anasi wandering red named Rossa to teach her in the ways of wooing men, and in the ways of faith. Apapilat eventually became queen, and a follower of the Faith of Anasia. In the final years of Tolem's long reign (he was called the "Ancient Apapilantine," for he ruled nearly 90 years), an infant stowaway survivor of the Topok Rebellion named Messink was spirited away to the headquarters of the Slayers' Guild, located secretly beneath Mount Beles within Pilantine territory. Growing up there, and often visiting the City Around the Great Pyramid during his childhood, Messink grew up thinking of himself as both Pilantine and Sefenlander. He would eventually be revealed to be the nameless child, beloved of the nameless gods of this Earth by the Blood Children of the Kinglands, who gave him an army, and a means of restoring order in the Sefenlands. He overthrew and de-bodied Sadei Hairas, become the finder of the House of Messon and Emperor of the Sefenlands. He immediately set his eyes on conquering the unruly nations of the Delklands. He considered Pilat to be the last on his list because he had a deeply ingrained respect for the monarchy of the Foerunner Kings. Once he had conquered the whole of the Delkish Continent, and quashed most resistance movements, he set his eyes on the continent of the Ayelands. His scouts told him that he would be greatly overextending his supply lines, but that an invasion could be done slowly, over a period of about thirty years. He then decided that to successfully invade the Ayelands, the whole of the Badlands must needs be under his control. To that end he decided that peacefully entering Pilat, and declaring himself ruler may be the better strategy than simply invading and murdering everyone there. He decided to meet with Queen Apapilat. Tinder Tender & the Tyrant: Apapilat secretly disguised herself as a dragontender working within the Great Royal Temple in the town of Kastrum (located just thirty kilometers north of the Great Pyramid), and repeatedly postponed her meeting with the emperor to secretly vet his worthiness. She found that he was a perfect gentleman to her and all her "servants" (who were in reality mostly members of her royal guard), and was even willing to talk to her as a lowly servant without lording his "station" over her. In fact he even humbled himself before her by allowing himself to be taught how to ride the queen's particularly unruly dragon Foedanael. He was not aware the dragon belonged to the queen directly or else he would not have disrespected her property so. Eventually she decided she approved of him, and revealed her identity. He was impressed with her, and gave her an ultimatum: autonomy under his rule, or war. She took autonomy, and slavery officially ended in Pilat on that day. The two began a secret romance. A dramatized form of this romance is told to children across Western Parthalenn and the Delklands, "Tinder Tender & the Tyrant." War in Pilat: Following Apapilat's unseemly "suicide" (execution) by dragonfire, she was succeeded by Amon Messinkos. Amon Messinkos was the bastard son of Messink, in fact his name means "son of Messink" in Sefenlander. Yet he was the only child Apapilat had in any form legitimized, as all her other children were unacknowledged, and by men of low stations. The queen had been an excellent ruler, but had not been mindful of her potential legacy. Most notably, she did nothing to calm the anger of Messink's legitimate son by his wife Anu Messon (Topok), Makexes Messon. It was Makexes that ordered Apapilat's death following his own ascent to the throne. Makexes also ordered that Messinkos' claims be made illegitimate, and ordered an invasion of Pilat. For seven years war raged in Pilat, aided by the neighboring Lobott waging their own War in Lobott against Sefenlander rule. Messinkos briefly fled to Bredenn Isle, but loyalists there spotted him and he was brought to the Four Scorpions, where Emperor Makexes de-bodied him. They were brothers. In fact, they were the same age, and it was rumored that they may have been possibly swapped at birth. It was possible that Makexes ordered the death of his very own mother, and definitely murdered his brother. So the War in Pilat ended in Sefenlander victory. Eventually the War in Lobott, however, would end in a decisive Lobott victory, and the rise of the Delkish Empire. Delkish Empire: Tripartition of Pilat: Kingdom of Crahia: After the Dogfight: New Delkish Empire: Doom War: Helter-Skeleter Incident: Huron Space: By the time of Huron Space, Pilat has been reformed but split in two. West Pilat remains part of Lobott, while the rest of Pilat is a nearly entirely autonomous country under the control of the New Delkish Empire. This resolution was shaky for its first century or so, when acts of terror plagued West Pilat, carried out by unhappy Pilantinemen willing to lay down their lives for their country.Category:States Category:History Category:Geography